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Copyright © 2018 Rory Crabb All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record or otherwise whatsoever, without the prior permission of the author. Permission is granted to print the PDF edition for personal use only. Unless otherwise attributed all photographic works are public domain.
A Supplement for NavalCommand
FAST ATTACK
Introduction ................................................................ 3
Design Notes ............................................................... 3
Section 1—Additional Rules
New Ship Classes ......................................................... 3
Small Arms .................................................................. 4
Damage ....................................................................... 4
Piracy .......................................................................... 5
Table of Contents
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Welcome to “Fast Attack” the first supplement for the
Naval Command wargame rules. The supplement
provides allows players to expand their games of Naval
command to fully incorporate operations taking place
within the coastal or littoral area involving small craft.
Missile Boats
Prior to the development of the anti-ship missile the
only way to increase a ships power was by the
development of ever larger calibre guns, these in turn
required larger ships as a stable firing platform. The
emergence of the guided missile as the primary
weapon for warships meant that a large ship was no
longer required, in fact missiles could be fitted to small
high speed craft favouring manoeuvrability over
protection.
These small, cheap but well armed missile boats allow
poorer countries to quickly build effective naval forces
without the massive investment required for larger
warships.
This type of vessel saw action during the Arab-Israeli
war in engagements such as the battle of Latakia.
Piracy, Anti-Terror and Anti-Drugs Operation
An important role for modern naval forces is anti-
piracy and counter-terrorism. This involves protecting
merchant vessel convoys from pirates and carrying
pout seek and destroy missions targeted at pirates,
terrorists and drug cartels.
Littoral Operations and Land Operation Support
In the modern world battles between vessels at sea are
extremely rare. Modern navies therefore are usually
used to support land based operations. This can involve
the transportation of forces and logistics, providing
carrier based air-support to land forces or providing
fire support with gunnery or long range cruise missiles.
This area of operations also includes carrying out
clandestine or top secret missions to insert and extract
special forces units into enemy controlled areas.
Introduction
Missile Boats
The missile boat is the direct descendant of the MTB,
instead of being armed with torpedoes these are
armed with anti-ship missiles (SSMs) and equipped
with modern electronic warfare systems.
This supplement adds a number of new element types
to the game. Most of these are sub-classes of the
Corvette and Patrol Boat classes from the core rules.
Motor Torpedo Boats [MTB]
These fast attack craft armed with torpedoes were
widely used during the second world war. A number of
modern navies still make use of MTBs especially in
confined coastal waters. Most navies have replaced
their MTB fleets with missile boats.
Littoral Combat Vessels
These are a relatively recent class of ship developed by
the United States Navy specially designed for
operations within the littoral zone (close to the coast).
They have similar capabilities to amphibious assault
ships (including a flight deck) allowing a small assault
force to be carried.
The primary design features emphasise high speed, a
shallow draught and the ability to carry out different
types of mission.
Element Types
RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat)
These high speed craft are used for landing small units
of troops during amphibious missions or can be used
to intercept enemy vessels while at sea.
Skiff
This class of vessel covers any small motor craft used
by pirates, terrorists or smugglers. Skiffs are usually of
local design and construction and apart from small
arms carried by the crew are un armed.
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Weapon Damage
Assault Rifles [1] General Purpose Machine Gun [1] Heavy Machine Gun [2] Gatling Machine Gun [3] Rocket Propelled Grenade [3]
Most ships will carry an array of small arms such
as ,machine guns and assault rifles. Although generally
designed as anti-personnel weapons these can cause
substantial damage to small vessels.
Small arms can only fire over a short range therefore in
the game all small arms regardless of their type fire
over a range of 1.
Resolving Small Arms Fire
The score required on 1d10 to hit a vessel with small
arms fire is denoted by the target vessel’s “target”
characteristic. If the fire hits the target a roll bust be
made to determine whether their fire causes any
substantial damage. The following list shows the score
required on 1d10 to cause damage to different target
sized. Note that cruisers and larger vessels cannot be
damaged with small arms fire.
• RIB/ Speedboat/ Yacht/ Skiff: 4+
• Patrol Boat/ Missile Boat/ MTB: 6+
• Corvette/ Frigate/ Destroyer: 8+
If successful the following table shows the umber of
minor damage points inflicted from each type of small
arms fire.
Small Arms
Any vessel small vessel (smaller than a corvette) or
civilian merchant vessel that comes under small arms
attack (whether damage is caused or not) must roll
1d10, on a roll of to 3-6 the vessel must immediately
make a move of 3 away from the firing vessel (moving
out of small arms range). This represents small craft
been driven off by small arms fire.
On a Roll of 1 or 2 the vessel will immediately
surrender and prepare to be boarded. These vessels
are removed from play.
Small Vessel Damage
Most small vessels are listed with only one damage
characteristic (rather than the usual three). This figure is
the vessels total damage capacity. Small boats do not
take heavy damage or become crippled. This is because
smaller boats have less ability to take and withstand
damage and remain afloat.
Damage Characteristics of Less than 1
Very small vessels such as RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats),
small speedboats and skiffs will usually have less than 1
damage point. This type of vessel can easily be
damaged and sunk by small arms fire.
The damage characteristic for this type of vessel is
displayed as a number in brackets such as: [4]. These
are referred to as minor damage points. Six minor
damage points make up one standard damage point.
During the game this type of damage is marked on a
vessel using a different coloured d6.
Damage Control
Any vessel with a total damage level of 1 or less can not
carry out any damage control during the game. When
small vessels receive damage they often sink or burn up
too quickly to effectively carry out repairs.
Damage
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The Piracy Problem
Piracy targeted at merchant vessels is a major world
issue, costing the global economy over $16 billion a
year. Piracy is most prevalent in the waters between
the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast,
and also in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore, which
are used by over 50,000 merchant ships a year.
The offshore oil industry has also been put at risk in
areas such as West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea
forcing oil companies to pay for their own security
services to protect their commercial interests.
Multi national efforts are now being made to combat
piracy and protect merchant ships in these high-risk
areas
Global Piracy Hotspots
The map below shows the main piracy hotspots around
the world from the late 1990s through to the present
day.
Piracy
Pirates in the Game
Various scenarios can be played involving pirates. These
are described in more detail in the scenario section of
this supplement.
Rules of Engagement
During anti-piracy missions a fleet must follow the
“Positive Identification” rules of engagement (see the
core rulebook)
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Type of Vessel Being Boarded Score Required
Civilian Yacht 2+
Merchant Vessel 3+
Merchant Vessel with anti-piracy
defences 5+
Merchant Vessel with armed
defenders 8+
Merchant Vessel with military
defenders 9+
Naval Vessel 10+
Offshore Platform 4+
Offshore Platform with anti-piracy
defences 6+
Offshore Platform with armed
defenders 9+
Offshore Platform with military
defenders 10+
Naval vessels cannot be taken under total control by
pirates. A naval vessel will simply stop moving and may
not carry out any further actions until the pirates are
defeated. Each turn after the ship has been boarded roll
1d10. On a roll of 4+ the pirates are captured or killed
by the ships crew and full control of the ship is regained.
Defences
There are various methods of defending a ship from a
pirate attack. Some of these are designed to kill the
pirates while others are only designed to prevent them
gaining access to a vessel or drive them away.
Fixed Defences (Barbed Wire etc.)
Merchant ships will often add protection such as barbed
wire and razor wire attached to the rails and bulwarks
on their decks to prevent pirates from climbing on
board.
Fire Hoses
Merchant vessels also rig fire hoses on their decks,
ready charged with water to be fired at pirate
attempting to approach and board the vessel. Although
not fatal the water jets are strong enough to repel
attackers and cause minor injury.
In the game an fire hoses can only be used if attackers
are attempting to board and works in the same way as
small arms, however successful hits cause no damage
and can only drive off their target.
LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device)
This is another non-lethal method designed to repel
would-be attackers. The LRAD uses directed high
intensity sound to repel attackers. In the game an LRAD
works in the same way as small arms, however
successful hits cause no damage and can only drive off
their target.
Boarding
Usually pirates will attempt to board a ship in order to
take its crew hostage and demand ransom money from
the ship’s owners or flag state.
During the game if a pirate vessel wishes to carry out a
boarding attempt it must move into contact with its
target (both miniatures must be in base-to-base
contact). Once alongside the target ship will try to
prevent the pirates boarding either by manoeuvring the
ship or physically fighting the attackers off.
While the pirate vessel is alongside roll 1d10. The score
required to successfully board are as follows.
If the roll is unsuccessful the pirates fail to board the
vessel. They may make another attempt during the
following turn. If the roll succeeds the pirates
successfully gain access to the vessel and take control.
Place some kind of marker beside the ship miniature to
indicate that it has been captured.
A captured merchant vessel, civilian yacht or offshore
platform is now under the total control of the player in
charge of the pirates.
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Boarding a Vessel Held by Pirates
In some situations special forces soldiers may be used
to re-capture a vessel that has been taken hostage by
pirates. Troops can gain access to a vessel either by
boat or by helicopter. While the special forces boat is
alongside or their helicopter directly above roll 1d10.
The score required to successfully board different
vessel types are as follows.
Type of Vessel Being Boarded
Score Required
From
Boat
From
Helicopter
Civilian Yacht 3+ 6+
Merchant Vessel 4+ 5+
Naval Vessel 4+ 4+
Offshore Platform 5+ 3+
If the roll is unsuccessful the special forces soldiers fail
to board the vessel. They may make another attempt
during the following turn. Each subsequent turn they
receive an additional –1 modifier to their dice role to
simulate that they have lost the element of surprise.
If the roll succeeds the special forces successfully gain
access to the vessel and take control, killing or
capturing all of the pirates.
Small Arms
While operating in high risk areas naval vessels will post
personnel on deck to operate small arms such as
assault rifles and fixed machine guns. Merchant ships
may also have armed defenders on deck either supplied
by a military force or hired as commercial armed
protection.
These follow the standard rules for small arms fire (see
“Small Arms” section)